If you are a homeowner or a residential landlord, then you have probably heard of the Green Home Grant Scheme. Introduced in September 2020, it was the government’s idea to ‘build back better’ (a strategy aimed at reducing the risk to the people of nations and communities in the wake of future disasters and shocks) and create new green jobs to help the economy recover from the pandemic.
You would receive a voucher of up to £5000 to increase your home energy efficiency by installing one or more energy saving measures; insulation, double glazing, air source heat pumps, ground source heat pumps, solar thermal etc. The aim was to enable homeowners and landlords to update their homes and properties with energy-saving features in order to reduce energy usage and improve energy efficiency.
Sounds great so far, doesn’t it?
There were more than 123,000 applications for the grant by the end of February 2021, but only 28,000 had been issued and a mere 5,800 energy efficiency measures had been installed. To put this into context, over 19 million homes in the UK needed to be insulated, otherwise the emissions from gas boilers would destroy the UK’s chances of achieving its personal targets to battle climate change.
So, what happened?
Well, the scheme was abandoned just 6 months after its initial launch.
The £1.5bn programme, which offered household grants of up to £5000-£10,000 to install insulation or low carbon heating, has left the UK without a plan on how to tackle the damaging greenhouse gas emissions.
The government claimed that homeowners were finding it difficult to get their applications approved and find qualified installers, whilst many others were reluctant to apply for the grant (costing up at £10,000) as they feared catching covid from contractors. However, in other parts of the country, installers were inundated with demands. The installers themselves were experiencing drastic payment delays that many were even forced to withdraw from the scheme; this meant they were losing work, and even their jobs. Whereas other builders were found to be massively overcharging for their work.
Only roughly 5% of the funds had been allocated meaning that 20,000 of the 600,000 targeted homes had received support.
The voucher scheme adopted a measure-based approach; despite the lessons indicating that this approach leads to poor outcomes, under-performance, and dissatisfied customers.
When the scheme was investigated, it was found that there were many problems with issuing the vouchers for the grants. Chairman of the environmental audit committee, Philip Dunne, said it proceeded ‘at a snail’s pace’, and lacked skilled workmen with the correct certifications.
So… what now?
According to the Energy Saving Trust, 22% of our carbon emissions come from our homes – now many of us have been working from home, it has made us a lot more aware of the cost of our heating bills, so the government is now in desperate need of sorting out a new plan.
The UK government has now promised that by 2035, there will be deep reductions in emissions.
It is said that this scheme will be replaced by a £3000 million extra funding for green home upgrades, as well as new funding through local authorities to assist lower income households to cut emissions and save money on bills.